How to gain extra sales for your business book with an audio book
If you’ve written a book you might be wondering whether you should create an audio book to go with it. After all, audio is the talk of the town now, isn’t it?
It’s true. One of the most exciting changes happening in publishing is the rise of the audio book.
For instance, the audio edition of Malcolm Gladwell’s Talking to Strangers recently outsold the print edition two to one.
And in March 2019 The Bookseller magazine reported that audio downloads grew by 13 per cent in 2018, as major distributors such as Walmart (in partnership with Kobo) and Google began selling audio books.
Which means that if you want your book to reach as wide an audience as possible, you ignore audio at your peril.
Why are audio books so popular?
When you think about it, it’s not hard to see why people love them.
Audio books are incredibly digestible and portable. One of my clients takes a two hour run in the morning and listens to a whole book while he goes – it’s a brilliant way for him to kill two birds with one stone.
Also, audio books – like e-books – can be downloaded and consumed instantly. There’s no hanging around waiting for them to be delivered, or a trip to the shops to buy one.
And finally, the explosion of podcasting means that we’re all used to listening to in-depth content now. It seems like a small step to transition from an hour’s podcast to a two-hour book listening session.
This is of great interest to me as I recently launched the audio version of my own award-winning book, Your Business Your Book: How to plan, write, and promote the book that puts you in the spotlight (you can find it on Audible, Kobo, and Apple Books).
And I’m using my own experience with this to walk you through the process of creating and marketing your own audio book.
Decide your audio book production method
Your first decision is whether to record it yourself at home, or to ask a professional studio or audio publisher to manage the process.
Only use the home route if you’re willing to invest in the right equipment, which is essential if your audio book isn’t to sound amateur. Here’s an informative post by Joanna Penn on how to create your own home recording studio if you’re really serious about it.
Next, decide if you want to narrate it yourself or to hire a narrator.
For a business book, I see this decision as resting on whether or not your voice is part of your personal brand.
If you’re a speaker or podcaster, and regularly use your voice to put across your message, I suggest you narrate the book yourself. You wouldn’t want someone to find you inspiring on stage only to feel a jarring sensation when they listen to a different voice reading aloud your book.
However, narrating the book yourself involves several days in a recording studio. If you don’t have the time or energy for that, hiring a narrator is a sensible step.
It’s not as expensive as you might think, and you’ll have a professional, trained voice to speak your content. This is what I did to produce my own audio book and it worked really well.
One tip is to listen to a few narrators so you can achieve as good a ‘voice match’ as possible, and send them a recording of you reading a few paragraphs yourself so they get a feel for what you want.
Check the recordings
Once you have your recording files, check them by reading your book alongside them. Make a note of any errors and glitches, and ensure they’re fixed. You don’t want anything to spoil the flow for your listeners.
It sounds obvious, but you also need to bear in mind that listening to a book is a linear and non-visual process. Your listeners can’t see any of your charts or illustrations, nor can they flip back and forth to different sections of the book. You should adapt your wording to suit this, avoiding phrases such as: ‘As I mentioned above’, or ‘As you can see from this chart’.
Upload and publish
You or your audio publisher should then upload the files to the relevant retailer sites such as Audible, add the cover artwork (which will be an adaptation of your print book), and you’re ready to go.
Market your audio business book
There are over 250,000 titles on Audible UK alone, so simply having your book on there and hoping people will find it won’t give you sales.
So what should you do? As I’m new to my audio book marketing journey, I’m grateful to Whitefox for some of the following tips.
First, make sure your audio book is grouped together with your print and e-book versions on Amazon. That way, if someone views your print book they’ll see the audio option there, and you can use the same link to promote all your versions.
If you’re active on audio or visual channels such as YouTube or a podcast, you can add clips of your audio book to your content. You can even accompany the audio with images and animations. Also, consider adding a sample audio chapter to your website.
If you send an email newsletter, make sure you alert your audience to the release of your audio book. You’ll pick up potential readers who are more interested in that format than in reading it.
And finally, one of the best bits of advice I’ve seen is to see the publication of your audio book as a second bite of the cherry after your print and e-book versions are launched. It has a new format, a new medium, and a new publication date. It’s a great excuse for a second marketing campaign.
So now you know how to create and produce your audio business book, you have nothing to stop you taking advantage of this growing medium.
